Secrets and Rumors
by Gining
Summary: Gift fic! Secrets are reveled when two members of Avalanche are caught in a cave during a blizzard while trying to fulfill a reserrection rumor.


A/n: One-shot gift fic for Chibi-Sorrow. (though she didn't know that till now) You're b-day was too far away, but this idea hit me, so I just had to write it for ya. Hope you likey!

I'm expanding on my writing. Normally I only write for FFX, but I'll try anyway. Sorry if it sucks.

Disclaimer: I'll only say it because this is a one-shot, I don't own these ppl, but if I did...I'll leave that up to your imaginations.

--

Two females walked along together in the snow. They were cold and tired, but they refused to give up. After all they had a personal mission: to find out if it was possible for Aeris to be revived. Cloud had said that after meteor was destroyed he saw a vision of her. So they took it upon themselves to find out for sure.

The younger of the two, Yuffie Kisaragi, turned her violet eyes to her friend. "Tifa, I'm cold. My fingers are cold, and my toes are cold, and my nose is cold and.."

"I know, Yuffie. I know." Tifa interrupted her. "I'm cold too, but we are almost there." Her long hair was whipped around as a gust of cold wind blew past them. Managing to stay on her feet took some effort, but she did it. She turned just in time to see that her younger friend, however, did not.

"I'm going back." Yuffie announced. "This is crazy. We are never going to find anything if we freeze to death." She used a gloved hand to punch the soft snow under her in frustration.

"Ok, I get the point." Tifa scanned the horizon for some shelter. She spotted a cave on a cliff about two hundred yards east of them. "Why don't we rest there?" She suggested as she pointed.

The young ninja followed her finger and agreed once she saw it. "Fine, but you have to help me, I don't even know if I can walk anymore." She almost burst into tears at being so helpless, but held them back. At least for the time being.

Together they struggled to reach the cave. Snow had begun to fall signaling a storm was approaching. Upon reaching the shelter, Tifa began to walk right in.

"Wait." Yuffie stopped her. "There might be monsters inside. I learned that the hard way once before I joined you guys."

"So what do we do?" The brunette asked surprised that the ninja even thought about that before she did.

"Summon Ifrit. That should take care of any baddies and warm the cave up to boot." She tried to sound happy, but her friend could tell how hollow it sounded.

Ignoring the nagging feeling that something was wrong with Yuffie, she took her advice.

--

Together they had managed to make a small fire and sat together huddled around it to keep warm. They sat in companable silence until Yuffie sneezed.

"Bless you." Tifa said automatically. Though she quickly became worried when her young friend did it twice more. Maternal instincts kicking in, she reached over to feel her forehead. "Yuffie, you're burning up! Why didn't you say that you were sick?" She exclaimed.

"Don't know. Didn't want you to feel sorry for me I guess." She shrugged before sneezing again.

"Well, I'm worried now. Here take my coat. You need to stay warm."

Yuffie turned it down with a shake of her head. "No, you need it to stay warm. I think I have something in my bag though." She attempted to stand up, but a wave of dizziness hit her and she had to sit back down.

"I'll get it. You stay right there. Besides, I think I may have an extra one for you too." Tifa stood and searched both bags coming up with two small covers. She brought them back and lay them atop the ninja. "There much better." She smiled as she sat back down.

"Thank you, Tifa." Yuffie cuddled into the blankets to keep warm.

It was quiet again, and Tifa thought that maybe she had fallen asleep until a question was asked. "Do you love Cloud?"

"W-what?" She stuttered a moment. "Where did that come from?"

"Come on, Teef. Just answer it, do you love him or not?"

"Well, I guess so. But as a friend." She was quick to counter.

"Yeah right. I see how you look at him. You like him." Yuffie teased adding a few extra syllables to the last two words.

"Oh yeah, what about you and Vincent?" She tried to tease right back.

"What about him?" Another sneeze.

"Bless you. I see how you hang around him trying to get him to talk to you." She gently pushed the younger girl but not hard enough to knock her over.

"Please, the guy needs to open up. He spent too long in that nasty coffin. The great ninja Yuffie is just the one to bring him out of his shell." She held her head high as she used her thumb to point to herself.

"So says you. He's still caught up over that Lucy girl. I doubt he'll ever let her go."

"Lucrecia." Yuffie corrected. An eyebrow rose, but nothing was said to that. "Besides, we were talking about you and Cloud. Not me and my supposed infatuation of Vinnie."

"What's to talk about? He's just a friend." She shifted to get more comfortable.

"A friend who you happen to like very much. Tell me again why we are doing this."

A sigh. "Because of the vision he had, and the rumor that would be able to make him happy. If we can resurrect Aeris then maybe he would smile again." Her eyes got a dreamy glaze to them as she spoke.

"Yeah right. Keep telling yourself that, someday you might believe it." Yuffie muttered before lying down to get some sleep.

"You say something?"

"No, nothing. Get some sleep." She lied.

--

It was much later when Tifa awoke to coughing and groans. She opened her eyes to see that the fire had gone down some, so she pulled out her materia to help it along. Then she stood to search for her friend.

Yuffie was in the back of the cave vomiting. "Ugh, I definitely do not remember eating that." She mumbled thinking no one could hear her anyway.

"You're sick, and still making jokes."

Yuffie jumped at the intrusion. "Don't do that to me!" She hissed. "What do you want anyway?"

"You're sick."

"Really? Thanks I would have never known if it weren't for you."

"Yuffie." She warned.

"Fine, fine. Can you just give me something to rinse with? That stuff tasted better the first time."

Leading her back to the now blazing fire, Tifa found a canteen of water and handed it over. Yuffie used some to rinse her mouth then drank a little to replace what she had thrown up.

"Thanks, that's what I needed." She put the canteen aside and shivered within her cocoon of covers. "I'm cold. So cold." She shivered then sneezed again.

"We need to get you out of here. With you being sick and all..." She trailed. She stood and walked over to the mouth to have a look at what it was like outside. Coming back she plopped down in defeat. "Great. Just what we need."

"What?" A couple coughs followed by another sneeze.

"A blizzard. We may be stuck here for a while." She reached into her pocket and pulled out her PHS. "Why didn't I think of this sooner?"

"Because you're really a blond?" Yuffie suggested.

"You behave." Tifa warned as she tried to call Cloud. There was some static, then nothing as the phone went dead. "Maybe that's why. It won't work anyway." She glanced over to see Yuffie starting to fall asleep. "Oh no, you are not falling asleep. You need to stay awake so you don't freeze."

"But I'm so tired." She whined. "Please just let me sleep."

"No, unless you want me to start acting like Vincent because I could have stopped you from dying."

"Fine, you win. The last thing we need is another him." She conceded as she sat up. "What shall we do then to keep me awake?"

"We can talk. Maybe about you and Vincent."

"Why do you keep going back to that? There is nothing between us. Can't we be friends like you and Cloud are 'just friends'?" Yuffie indicated while making air quotes with her fingers.

"You sneak. Somehow you always seem to bring it around to me." Yuffie smiled. "Ok, I'll admit it. I like him as more then a friend. But he's so hung up on Aeris that I don't have a chance. That's why I thought if I could maybe, bring her back, he would be happy again." She folded her hands in her lap and stared at them without saying anything else.

Yuffie scooted over till she was able to sit next to her friend. "You know we can't, but seeing how determined you were to do this I agreed to come with you. But if you never say anything either, how is he going to know how you feel?" She spoke with wisdom beyond her years.

Red-brown eyes met violet as a silent agreement came between them.

--

"They came this way, the trail is still fairly fresh." Nanaki said to the two men behind him.

The snow had died down and Cloud, Vincent, and Nanaki went out to find the two female members of AVALANCHE. Nanaki led the party using his nose to sniff out where they might have gone.

"The villagers said that they left about three days ago." Vincent spoke up for the first time that day. "If they became caught in the storm yesterday.."

Cloud interrupted him by grabbing a hold of the front of his cape and almost threatening him. "You take that back, Valentine. We will find them, they are strong. I don't want to think about what I would do if something happened to Tifa." He let go slowly and backed away.

"My apologies." Vincent said as he adjusted the cape where Cloud's hands had gripped it.

"No, you're right. I have to look at all possibilities. Anything could have happened to them."

"Over here!" The red beast called to them. "I think I found something!"

The two men ran to see what it was he had found. Inside a cave sat a bundle of cloth with a bit of dark fur peeking over top. Upon closer examination though, they could see it wasn't fur, but hair. The remains of a fire in front of them had long since died away. Cloud rushed over to see their faces. Pulling a part of the blankets away, he could see how pale they both appeared.

"Call Cid. Tell him we need him to pick us up right away." He commanded. Nanaki left to fill the order. "Come on, Teef. You can't die on me too." He whispered to the brunette fighter.

"We have to warm them up somehow." Vincent said as he leaned down and picked Yuffie up. "Body heat is the best thing we have right now." He suggested as he began to take off his cloak and wrap it around himself and the small girl after unwrapping her from the blankets she was in. He moved to lean against a wall until help could come.

Taking his advice, Cloud did the same for the other female and sat down next to him. The red cat came in only moments later letting them know that Cid was indeed on his way.

"Cloud, are you... crying?" He asked when he saw the moisture built in the blonde's eyes. The only answer he received was Cloud pulling the girl in his arms closer to himself. Nodding, he sat down at their feet to await the airship.

--

Tifa awoke a day later to find a sleeping blond sitting in a chair next the bed she was laying in. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she sat up. "Cloud?" She whispered.

He let out a grunt as he heard his name, but did not open his eyes, not yet anyway.

She leaned over and placed a hand on his thigh, the closest part to her, and gently shook it. "Cloud, wake up."

Feeling the touch on his leg he stirred and lifted his arms above his head in a stretch before opening his eyes to see her. "Tifa, you're awake. How do you feel?" He asked concerned as he put a hand to her head.

"Weak." She answered as she flopped back onto her pillow.

"I'm not surprised, you and Yuffie almost got yourselves killed. Do you know how worried I was about you? Why did you even go off to that place to begin with?"

"Cloud, you were... worried about me?" She asked shocked that he would even say something like that.

"Of course! I'm not heartless."

"I..see." She folded her hands and stared at them. "I thought that maybe if.." She trailed.

"If what?" He probed.

"You were so upset lately. I thought that maybe if I could bring Aeris back, you would be happy again. I heard a rumor that there was something in the great glacier that would do that." She confessed.

He reached over and grabbed her hands out of her lap. "Tifa, look at me." She lifted her eyes just enough. "Aeris is gone. I know that nothing came bring her back now. But you, you are alive and here with me. You always have been. And as long as you don't go on another fool adventure like what you just did, you always will be." He moved in closer and kissed her gently on the lips.

Tifa's eyes grew large before she realized just what was happening. Closing them, she took comfort in his touch.

"Aww, will you look at that. Isn't that just the sweetest thing you ever saw?" A voice from the doorway interrupted them.

The two broke apart quickly, both blushing. "Yuffie, Vincent! What are you doing here?" Tifa exclaimed.

"We came to see how you were doing." Vincent answered in his monotone voice; it relaxed some when he added the next part. "But it would appear you are quite well."

A blush came over her cheeks again at his comment. "So you are better too, Yuffie?" She asked eager to get the attention off of her.

"Yeah, you could say that." Yuffie answered as she used one hand to scratch the back of her head. It was then that Tifa noticed the other was wrapped around a certain gentleman's waist.

"Yuffie?" Tifa questioned with her eyes as she hinted to the arms that wrapped around one another.

"Hehe, yeah well. You know. We talked."

"Told you so." Tifa said as Vincent pulled her from the room.

"So you did, so you did." Yuffie called back before she was out of range.

Cloud glanced at the brunette waiting for an answer. "Just some girl talk." She replied. "Nothing you would be interested in anyway." She tried to wave him off.

"Oh, but I am quite interested in this so called girl talk. What did you say about me?" A goofy smile played across his features.

"Nothing much. Just stuff." She bluffed.

"I think I would like to hear about this 'stuff' sometime. But maybe you could do something for me first." He hinted.

"Like what?"

He leaned in and gave her another kiss, this not quite as chaste as the first one. And Tifa though that maybe, just maybe, she might tell him someday all about what had been said in that cave.

--

Okay, that didn't ending didn't come out as well as I had hoped, but it's not all bad. Anyway, let me know what you thought. Gin...


End file.
